


tide out, tide in

by morino



Series: [ collection ] – obstacles [2]
Category: springwave
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-10-13 16:54:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10517916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morino/pseuds/morino
Summary: "where is that incompetent weasel?!"[ apartment au; lucy, coast, lev ]





	

_BANG_ —the door is slammed open, one of its sides hitting the wall it's pushed towards.

"Where is that incompetent weasel?!"  
  
Lev doesn't bother lifting more than an eyebrow at her entrance. He can't see it, not when he's so focused on the piles of documents in front of him, but he's sure there's a blaze of angry flame marking the path she took to get here. The door's probably caught fire, too.  
  
He smiles to himself at the image: Lucy standing before a doorframe lit up like a tree covered in lights, if that tree was also on fire; the club outside this room crumbling to pieces behind her as her eyes burn with an intensity that could turn stronger men than him to ash.  
  
"Lev," she says, and he isn't shocked to find her towering over him when he looks up. For a moment her lips seem to push out, as if she's upset she hasn't struck fear into his heart. He leans back in his seat, eyes focused more on her mouth than the rapid cooling of her rage.  
  
"I don't know an 'Incompetent Weasel', but he sounds nice."  
  
Her scowl returns quickly after that. The expression deepens, somehow, when he returns that scowl with a grin of his own.  
  
"You know the room you're in? Coast's office?" Lev glances around, nods. "It would be very easy keep you here, scrub your remains into the carpet. Is that what you want?"  
  
"Well, it's not what _you_ want," he challenges, tongue darting over his lips as he leans forward, preparing for his stinger. He hesitates for just a moment, though, when his eyes catch sight of her gaze snapping from below his nose and then back to his eyes. How nice of her to reinforce the point that—"you need me."  
  
He doesn't mean it, of course. He might have been tagged as Jaeho's new 'right hand' by some of the men he worked with, but Lev knew he was still as disposable as every ever foot soldier Jaeho's had in his ranks. No matter how much respect or weirdly genuine care he shows to some of them, they're all just a means to a never-ending end.  
  
Lev's heard enough of the stories, of how Jaeho had crawled up all on his own, distant at the best of times and off-puttingly efficient at some of the worst. While they may make life a little easier, the man doesn't technically need any of them, Lev's pretty sure.  
  
The closest his boss has ever gotten to needing anyone is probably the woman standing on the opposite side of the desk from him. The very same one with the soft yet indiscernible glint in her eye, like what he said in his attempt to rile her up had some sort of verity to it.  
  
The air seems charged, suffocating, for the fleeting moment they choose to allow silence to hang between them.  
  
Her lips part.  
  
"I heard you were looking for me?"  
  
They both turn at the mildly amused voice coming from the door Lucy had walked through not too long before, although now it seems like ages ago. Jaeho stands with his hands in his pockets, suit jacket noticeably ruffled. A rare sight that Lev greatly appreciates; like a small reminder that even Jaeho, as impeccable as he sometimes seems, remains as human and imperfect as the rest of them.  
  
Lucy turns her back to the table but doesn't move any closer to Jaeho, answering his question with a curt nod. It is then that Lev realizes why she was here, probably why she assumed whoever she'd find in the office would know who Incompetent Weasel was.  
  
Lev lowers his head and returns to the papers on the desk. Names, dates, unverified intel – there's enough information to keep his mind focused on something other than the conversation being had in the room.  
  
His ears decide to listen in, anyway. Lev waves away the bud of guilt in his chest with a simple fact: if this was in any way confidential, he'd have been told to leave already.  
  
"Wes fucked his way deeper into the target's bad books, apparently. And now he's figured out Wes is somehow tied to us because he doesn't know how to keep his fucking tracks covered."  
  
"I thought he said he'd sorted that out?"  
  
Lev snorts, partially at the thought of Wes actually putting a stop to the sex he never stops yammering on about when he talks to anyone who's around to hear it, and partially because Jaeho actually decided to believe Wes when he said he did.  
  
But the sound Lev makes is enough to make them aware that he's listening, and knowing that, he decides genuine input would be better to give than a snide backing track of noises.  
  
"No one's heard from him in a few days. We figured Shen offed him."  
  
Lucy scoffs. "Oh, great, so he took time off to make things worse. Lovely."  
  
Jaeho's shoulders have grown stiff since their conversation started, gaze hardening as his neutral expression melted into something more akin to disappointment and mild annoyance. The look of a parent when they learn their child has done exactly the thing they were asked not to do.  
  
"Do we know who he's been linked to?"  
  
"Some of my guys," Lucy responds, arms crossed over her chest in a move that feels almost protective – like the warning sign of a mother bear about to pounce on an intruder. "Wes flitted in and out of the club too often, might have gotten followed. I'm guessing he was seen talking to some of the guys that usually hang around here."  
  
Jaeho's lips purse, a thin line with a silent potency to it that might have made Lev quiver if he weren't used to it.  
  
It seems to take Jaeho a handful of seconds to come up with a plan of action he's happy with before his mood changes from one of annoyance to steadfast resolution.  
  
"I'll sort it out."  
  
"I know you will," the timing of her steps as she finally wanders closer to Jaeho find a way to seem just as concerned as she sounds, "but I also know you pulled him out of who knows where, and you've always had a soft spot for those."  
  
Lev shifts in his chair – Jaeho's chair, he reminds himself. The very chair and symbol of power Jaeho had so easily told him to make himself feel at home in when Lev had first been invited into the office. He doesn't say a word, staring holes into pages he isn't even reading anymore.  
  
"I am not blinded by it," Lev hears a soft smack, like a kiss. Jaeho's lips briefly landing on the back of one of Lucy's hands; a touch of reassurance. Lev refuses to look up. "Tell them to be on alert. There'll be a meeting tomorrow, before noon. I want this dealt with as soon as possible."  
  
"Will do," another smacking noise, followed by the faint creak of the wounded door. She's leaving. "Don't stay up too late. I made sure you'd be dragged home if you're still here by two."  
  
A familiar fondness wraps around Jaeho's words, "I'll keep that in mind."  
  
And then she's gone.  
  
Lev continues to feign interest in the documents in front of him until he hears Jaeho heave a sigh, accompanied by the rustling of his jacket. Lev looks up just as Jaeho pulls one of his arms out of its sleeve.  
  
"What's the plan?"  
  
"We paint them a story. If Shen doesn't know _how_ Wes is connected to us, we give him the answer he wants," he explains, working his second arm free. "Stupidly reckless souls have patterns – going from owing mobsters money to toying with a boss's girlfriend would be a natural progression, even if it is a small leap."  
  
The corner of Lev's mouth curls up, the beginnings of a knowing smirk.  
  
"You're letting Wes off easy."  
  
Jaeho drops his jacket onto the armchair nestled in the corner of the room, and his body follows quite unceremoniously after it.  
  
"I wouldn't describe staging what could become a series of beatings as letting anyone off easy."  
  
"In this business, it is." Lev stands, collecting some of the pages he managed to read from before he was interrupted and then distracted. "Most people would cut their losses."  
  
"Which would have affirmed his ties to us, and knowledge of our intrusion would give Shen reason to wage one of his infamous wars."  
  
"And here you are, not excited by the idea of getting to flaunt your strength."  
  
As exhausted as he clearly is, Jaeho still channels what's left of his energy into frowning at Lev's observation.  
  
He knows why Jaeho has his reservations about considering himself any better than the rest of the men that carry a similar title to him in the surrounding areas — _My hands aren't clean, Hyungil. Nothing I do will wash them cleanse, nothing I do should ever be able to_ — but Lev still finds it frustrating that he won't admit to being morally better than most, if only just.  
  
But that is not an argument that will be put to bed tonight. Lev brushes past the topic as he walks around the desk and over to Jaeho, handing him the small stack of papers in his hand.  
  
"Did you find anything in all this?" Jaeho asks, taking the stack from him and quickly running his eyes through information he's already well acquainted with.  
  
"Nothing we don't already know. Madeye wants to take over parts of this area and Alice needs an out before her cover's blown."  
  
"It doesn't add up, does it?"  
  
"Alice checking in so regularly when she's supposed to be under a bunch of scrutiny? No, it doesn't."  
  
There is another sigh, this one edging closer to agitation than exhaustion, before Jaeho lets the papers fall to the floor, the stack splaying out only slightly once they've hit the floor.  
  
"Tomorrow."  
  
Looking at the small blotches of drying red Lev can see at the edges of Jaeho's shirt, and just above some places where he's tucked in his shirt, he's more than happy to go along with the boss's requests.  
  
He gives a nod and walks over to the door, knowing his next stop will be having to tell the two guards Lucy's posted at one of the tables nearest to the office not to let anyone in for the rest of the evening.  
  
"Enjoy your shut-eye, cap."  
  
Jaeho cracks a smile at that. Like for a moment they're back to only having to worry about the little things, like their landlord's ire and the stereo somehow breaking again.  
  
"Same to you."


End file.
